VICTORIES REVERSED: The 1938-9 Clash of Mohandas Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose

Will Woodworth ‘12

The Indian National Congress

SWARAJ FLAG OF THE INCPOST-INDEPENDENCE FLAG OF INDIA

Image Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1931_Flag_of_India.svg; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_India.svg

Foundations of the Gandhi-Bose Dispute

• Divergent Ideologies and Visions for India’s Future

• Bose’s Socialist Vision• Gandhi’s Traditionalist Vision of “Trusteeship”

• Degrees of Militancy

• Shared Steadfastness

• “Federation”

• Breach of Party Norms

• Continuing Militancy Divide

Immediate Causes of the Clash

Image Source: “Gandhi,” in New World Encyclopedia, http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Gandhi (accessed January 31, 2012).

• Election and Aftermath

• Quit India Movement of 1942

• Timing• Scale• Uncompromising

Stance

• Conclusions

Changing the Narrative: Bose’s Continued Relevance to the INC

Image Source: Educational Resource Center, “Subhas Bose,” Educational Resource Center, http://erc-pune.org/images/stories/easygallery/resized/43/1236152625_225px-Subhas_Bose.jpg (accessed January 31, 2012).

Selected Sources

Bose, Subhas Chandra. Congress President: Speeches, Articles and

Letters, January 1938-May 1939. Edited by Sisir K. Bose and

Sugata Bose. Vol. 9 of Netaji: Collected Works. Calcutta: Netaji

Research Bureau, 1995. 

Indian National Congress. INC: The Glorious Tradition: Texts of the

resolutions passed by the INC, the AICC, and the CWC. Vol. 4.

Edited by A. M. Zaidi. New Delhi: Indian Institute of Applied

Political Research, 1987.

Public and Judicial Department (Separate) Files. India Office Records.

British Library, London.